The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "court decisions" ...
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Bad to the Bone
When four executives of a medical-device company called Synthes went to jail for illegally marketing a bone cement—five patients had died after it was injected into their spines—Mina Kimes knew there had to be a compelling saga behind a case that had generated little coverage beyond local news articles. So she began digging, first with FOIA requests for never-before-published government documents, and then assembling hundreds of pages of court transcripts and internal company e-mails and reports. She used that foundation to begin the harder challenge: persuading Synthes employees, many of them terrified by the criminal case and the company’s intimidating chairman, to talk to her. With six months of grueling, old-fashioned reporting, Kimes succeeded, and “Bad to the Bone” is the masterful result. Not only did she persuade more than 20 current and former company employees to speak, but she also revealed a story whose disturbing breadth far exceeded the case presented in court. Her tour de force reporting raises profound new questions about the culpability of a key figure who wasn’t charged: Hansjörg Wyss, the reclusive and controlling Swiss founder and chairman—one of the richest people in the world—who made crucial decisions about how to sell the bone cement. This is a classic tale of corporate malfeasance: Warned by the government not to sell its bone cement for use in the spine, Synthes ignored the admonition despite clear evidence of lethal danger—a pig had died within seconds when the cement was tested on it—and encouraged surgeons to use the cement on people, five of whom died soon afterward. But “Bad to the Bone” isn’t just an exposé. It opens a window into a broader issue: how the medical system actually runs. Readers see how salespeople with no medical training advise surgeons—inside the OR during operations—on how to use their devices. They experience the tale of one surgeon who continues using the cement even after two of his patients died. Oh, and what sort of justice does Synthes itself receive? Wyss sells it, for $20 billion, to health care giant Johnson & Johnson, which praises Synthes’s “culture” and “values.” Corporate crime. Death on the operating room table. Secret e-mails. Surgeons on the edge. An imperious multibillionaire CEO. It’s a mesmerizing article, and Kimes’s reporting takes readers on a deeply unsettling journey that ensures they’ll never look at the medical system the same way again.
Tags: Medical devices; bone cement; Synthes
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Assault victim's tweets prompt contempt case
For 17-year-old Savannah Dietrich, it was like being victimized twice – first by the two boys who sexually assaulted her while she was passed out and then sent photos of the assault to their friends; secondly, by a secretive juvenile justice system that appeared more interested in protecting her attackers than her. Frustrated by what she felt was a lenient plea bargain for her two attackers, Savannah lashed out on Twitter – despite a judge’s warning that no one should talk about the incident because the case was in juvenile court. "There you go, lock me up," Savannah tweeted, as she named the boys who she said sexually assaulted her. "I'm not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell." Though threatened with contempt of court, Savannah refusal to stay quiet, and her decision to talk publicly to Courier-Journal reporter Jason Riley resulted in a series of stories that drew national attention and helped pry the lid off Kentucky’s secretive juvenile courts – potentially opening more cases in the future to ensure justice is done.
Tags: Sexual assults; juvenile justice system; juvenile court; Twitter
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Blood Ivory: Ivory Worship
At a time when the elephant is under siege and the world's media and NGOs have long focused attention on poaching in Africa, Bryan Christy went after ivory’s demand side. He spent nearly three years building a groundbreaking investigation into this crucial but poorly understood aspect of the illegal ivory trade. Using court records, official documentation, law enforcement sources, and reporting across five continents, Christy identified, for the first time, that religion plays a huge and ruinous role in the sale and purchase of illegal ivory; that China's government is driving the world's ivory market, has manipulated attempts to control it, and has plans to expand; and that the statistical model used by global regulators to make ivory trade policy decisions is insufficient and has been exploited.
Tags: elephant; ivory; ivory trade
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Supreme Court Spat
This story, produced by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and Wisconsin Public Radio, was first to report on a June 13 altercation in which Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser placed his hands on the neck of fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley in a dispute in her office in front of other members of the court. The article reported that the argument concerned the timing of the court's release of a decision upholding Republican Gov. Scott Walker's controversial bill to curb the collective bargaining rights of the state's public employees, and that the Capitol Police Department and the Wisconsin Judicial Commission were informed of the incident. The story also revealed that the Capitol police chief had come in to speak to the court's seven members about it. Although the initial story relied on anonymous sources, all of the facts were subsequently confirmed by on-the-record interviews, and later by police reports.
Tags: Wisconsin Supreme Court; police
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Right to Die
9News questioned the decisions of a small town sheriff who refused to help a family remove their 91-year-old father after he had locked himself into his home. The man was suffering from potential dementia, dehydration, and malnourishment. The family thought the man would die if he did not recieve medical attention and convinced a judge he should issue an order requiring he be hospitalized. The sheriff argued the man had the "right to die" if he wanted to and upheld the court order.
Tags: Right to Die
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Japan: Hiding America's Children
The story of 15 American fathers whose children were spirited away by their Japanese mothers. ABC News uncovered how these women have used the Japanese government's protection to keep their children hidden. FBI warrants, Interpol notices, U.S. custody decisions - none are recognized or enforced by the Japanese courts or law enforcement, leaving the fathers essentially helpless when it came to exercising their parental rights once the children were kidnapped to Japan.
Tags: abduction; Japan; United States; children
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Judge Darrell Russell, Jr.
The reporter uncovered a decision by a Baltimore County judge to marry a man accused of beating his fiance.
Tags: Judge Darrell Russell, Jr.; judge; court; decision; physical abuse
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Follow the Unlimited Money
Following the Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited donations to political campaigns from outside groups, the Sunlight Foundation launched a tool to track the activities and campaign contributions of organizations.
Tags: campaign; campaign contributions; politics; spending; donation
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Cracked
Fetlz's investigation "exposes how junk science has allowed Texas to keep mentally retarded inmates on death row - and execute several of them - despite a 2002 Supreme Court decision, Atkins v. Virginia, that bans such punishment for these defendants.
Tags: capital punishment; criminal justice; mental retardation; death row; execution; Texas; Atkins v. Virginia
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Smoke and Mirrors
"This four-part series documents the slow but complete transformation of the EPA from an agency legally bound to protect and improve the environment to an agency that used an array of political tricks to avoid its Congressional mandate. The series major findings are that the Bush administration appointed an administrator who would do its bidding on behalf of the corporate community; allowed important decisions to languish in the courts, thereby delaying the implementation of various regulations for years; developed a 'voluntary' anti-pollution program that actually rewards polluters; and ignored the science that underpins sound environmental policy."
Tags: EPA; pollution; Bush administration; environment; regulations; corporate control;